The Lion King War Hero
by hawk6
Summary: He had lost so much. He had killed so many. but in the end he gained so much more. this is the story of Kovu as I imagine him. not a psychopath or a bumbling idiot but someone full of anger and loss, someone who has seen the worst of the world and the best of it.
1. The past

** The Lion King War Hero **

**AN: my first story, The inspiration for this comes from the scene where Kovu and Kiara are running towards the battle and Kovu stops for a second and looks tiredly at the sight of the battle. Not angry; just tired, as if he's seen combat and death before. So that's what I've given him, a history as a soldier. PS if anyone is wondering the Askari are credited to Kovukono, who by the way is a brilliant author and would be even better if he wasn't so fucking depressing all the time. I may turn this into a multi chapter if reviews are good. **

I could be so many things right now. A soldier in a war I didn't want to fight, the king of a land I never wanted to rule. I could still be there you know, surrounded by all the blood and fire and the screams; oh I'll never forget the screams. But I left it; I left it all behind that day; in a field so soaked with blood that it felt like you were standing in a riverbed; so filled with pain and hatred that you couldn't help but be caught up in it, couldn't help but _feel_ it. The burning flames that melted flesh and scorched bones; yes, I could be many things right now. Most likely I'd be dead, but who would care? Well _she_ would, maybe her mother, my sister. But who else, who else would really _care_? My mother is dead and my father pissed off just after I was born. My mother never even cared about me anyway, for her it was all about vengeance. Vengeance for someone I never even met yet was expected to care about, expected to worship. So I ended up being trained to kill before I could talk. I never had a choice and I guess in a way neither did she.

But you already know all this don't you?

I suppose I should begin at the start shouldn't I? Well, it all started with the training, the utterly fucking brutal training; fighting and hunting and killing. But the problem is she couldn't teach me everything I needed to know. But there was a group that could; the Askari, who are they you ask? They're rouges, mercenaries, and I don't mean the Skari, the independent mercs. I mean the best of the worst, the most brutal efficient killing machines known to lions or any other species alive. So when I'm one and a half years old my mum sends me off to the Askari. Well I thought that mum was a bitch but those bastard instructors they had certainly took the prize. I learned how to kill lions, hyenas, leopards, fucking hippos, you name it. I learned basic healing. I learned tactics. I learned How to extract information from any animal, in other words how to torture someone, and how to resist it in turn. The last one was one of the worst parts of basic, and yes the whole of that was just basic.

Advanced was actual deployment on missions or 'jobs'. Before you ask yes I did kill other lions, as for how many, we weren't supposed to keep a count but we all secretly did at first. I… I got to fifty males before I stopped. As for females I got to hundred thirty, hundred forty even maybe? But what doesn't go away is the cubs. I-I… I never meant to kill them. I just… I got ordered to, and that's it. Two kills, and that's it.

I was just following orders...


	2. What to do about it

**Well as you asked here's chapter two, please review so I can know how I'm going. also this and later chapters might get a little dirty if you get what I mean. now review and please your GOD, wait the superiority complex comes later. **

"Do you think that talking about it helps?" Rafiki quizzed staring intently into Kovu's eyes.

"I...I don't really know," he confessed. "I mean _she's _the one that really needs to know, but telling her would just be so hard. I mean Kiara has no idea that I ever even hunted, how's she going to react if I tell her that I've k…ki…killed?" at this point he spluttered into silence and simply shook his head in silence, unable to say anything else.

"You cannot be thinking of _not_ telling her? She is your mate for Aiheu's sake!"

"I know."

"Then do you not love her?"

"Of course I love her!"

"Then prove it!" Rafiki silenced Kovu as he stared at him dumbfounded.

"Rafiki what the fuck…" he got no further as Rafiki whacked him with his stick. Rafiki noted, however that he barely seemed to care about being hit.

"Not like _that_ idiot, I meant spend time with her not ma…"

"I am NOT talking about _that_ here." Kovu glanced nervously around Rafiki's tree as though there were eyes in every branch.

"Kovu I'm da healer. If there is anyone you can talk to about mating it is me." Rafiki calmly stated as Kovu stared at him, hyperventilating.

"I…I yeah, okay."

"Have you two done anything?" Rafiki inquired carefully

"WHAT NO!" Kovu breathed deeply, shuddered and continued. "I…I mean no, we haven't m…mated," Kovu stuttered.

"I did not mean mating, I mean anything intimate. Wait a minute, you two really haven't?"

"No we haven't, got a problem with that?" Kovu leaned forward and bared his teeth at Rafiki.

"So have you done anything at all?"

"Um… uh no," Kovu muttered under his breath. Rafiki came to a realization.

"Kovu… you have a fear of intimacy! Don't you?" Rafiki finished triumphantly. His grin faded as Kovu's eyes became murderous and his claws, abnormally long and sharp from careful tending; slowly extended into the tree bark.

"I do **not**, alright? I just…" Kovu petered out, unable to think of an excuse.

"Kovu it's nothing to ashamed of. But being with her would certainly help with the nightmares," Rafiki said calmly. Kovu shivered, normally he would never have even come here to Rafiki but these ones he had been having recently were the worst he had ever had; and that was saying something about just how bad they were.

"Are you telling me to… NO! I'm not going to mate with Kiara just to stop…nice try!" Kovu expertly caught the stick Rafiki swung down at him and pulled him off balance.

"Gimmie me that back." Rafiki, and with effort yanked his stick from Kovu's paw. "All I want you to do is spend the night with her and see if that helps. Now calm down! Alright," Rafiki yelled, tired of Kovu's reluctance and fear.

"I...fine but I'll only do this if Kiara agrees." Kovu stated firmly

"hehehe I think Kiara will be only too happy to _help_ you." Rafiki chuckled knowingly.

"W…what do you mean?" Kovu asked, still exceedingly nervous.

"Oh nothing you need to know, after all how could I keep your privacy without keeping Kiara's?"

Kovu looked around for an excuse to leave and noticed to position of the sun. "Look I need to meet with Simba for _lessons _again. I…I guess we should do this again tomorrow?"

"Yes, again tomorrow but next time bring Kiara," Rafiki added.

Kovu shook his head, "absolutely not. She doesn't need to know about this, none of them do."

"Don't some of the Outsiders know already?"

Kovu shook his head again, "nope none still alive, except 'Tani of course."

"Kovu the pride needs to know, they'll find out eventually. You'll say something in your sleep and they'll guess from there," Rafiki insisted.

"Alright I'll bring Kiara next time. Just don't tell anyone else about my time in the Askari okay?"

Rafiki smiled, "your secret is safe with me."

Kovu sighed with relief and turned to jump from the tree. He leaped straight to the ground from the lofty platform set high in the tree that Rafiki called home, landing lightly on his paws before bounding off to his meeting with Simba.

Rafiki watched him go, a sad smile on his face. "This is going to be difficult Mufasa, he refuses to let go." He spoke to thin air as was his habit. "Although with news we have been hearing about _them_. Someone with his skills might just be what we need, if he can bring himself to use them."


	3. It never changes

**It should be obvious to most now that Kovu has some serious PTSD, (post traumatic stress disorder) as in he can barely bring himself to be close to anyone because of the memories. Also from now on there will be full metal jacket references as well as material from The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. (One of the best books on war ever according to people I know that have been there.)**

Kovu ran through the grass, the blades whipping his legs as he dashed to the Sunbathing rocks where he was supposed to meet Simba, six minutes ago. "I'm going to be late damn it!" He growled to himself, easily keeping up his sprinting pace. He had been trained to run for hours with a satchel filled with stones tied around his neck. Compared to that running through the grassland for a few minutes was nothing. Kovu sped up until the grass blurred around him and the wind whipped through his mane.

He arrived at the Rocks less than a minute later and barely out of breath. Simba tapped a rhythm on the dirt with his paw.

"Where the great Kings were you? Actually, I might not want to know," Simba said thoughtfully, smirking.

"Okay, what the fuck is it with people and dirty jokes today? First you and now Rafiki," Kovu snapped. Beyond frustrated with people's obsession with his personal life, he smirked and decided to fight fire with fire. "You do know you're talking about your daughter and me going at it, right?" In spite of his best efforts his cheeks still burned slightly.

It had the desired effect though, Simba flinched and groaned. "Gee thanks, I did not need _that _image in my head. Also, don't swear, _ever_." He softly growled the last word in a voice that caused raging elephant bulls to freeze, and took a slow step towards him.

Kovu shivered, he sounded like his old torture instructor. "Easy there, no need to get angry." He grinned disarmingly, trying to calm Simba down. It worked, somewhat, Simba stopped looking as if he was going to thrash him and instead merely looked pissed, he then smirked.

"Keep talking like that and maybe Kiara will hear about it," He said triumphantly.

"Don't we have training to do?" Kovu desperately changed the subject.

"Hmm, I suppose. Alright let's get going." With that Simba turned and started walking into the savannah, Kovu jogged up next to him.

"We'll start with the history of the Pride Lands." Simba announced as they neared a large grassy mound that was one of the landmarks of the Pride Lands. "Can you guess what happened here?" he asked. Kovu stared at the mound thoughtfully, noticing the unnatural way the grass had grown in the one spot. He remembered the last place he had seen like this…

**_Gore littered the earth around him as they dragged the corpses to be buried. The now-familiar stench of blood, shit, sweat and fear still hung like a miasma over the rogue coalition's former hideout. Kovu grunted as he dragged a particularly heavy dead cheetah, its head hung limply from its neck, connected only by tendons after he had carved through its throat._**

**_"Come on, Claw, you dragging that corpse or humping it?" Slash called, his lean-bodied black-maned team leader named for the distinctive mark on his face. Kovu, an adolescent, grunted an unintelligible response through his mouthful of cheetah leg as he dragged it to rough burial pit they had dug earlier in the day._**

**_"Speaking of humping, where the hell are Cutter and Blaze? Think those two would know there's such a thing as a time and a place." Kovu grunted after he had rolled the body into the pit._**

**_"Relax, we're here! We're here," the red-maned, ruby-eyed Cutter yelled as he and Blaze, with her blue eyes and dangling bangs came into the rocky clearing._**

**_"'Bout fucking time. Get shifting, lovebirds!" Slash yelled at them. The two each grabbed a corpse and started heaving. Cutter's however, was impaled on a sapling that Kovu had jammed her onto in the fighting yesterday._****_  
_**

**_"What the hell is this thing stuck on?" he grunted and heaved mightily. With a sickening wrenching sound, its head, still stuck on the sapling, was pulled clean off and blood spurted onto Cutter and nearby Kovu…_**

"Kovu, Kovu! You still here?" Simba shouted in his ear. Kovu started and glanced around wildly, trying to remember where he was.

"Yeah, yeah I'm here. Sorry I just… drifted off." Kovu grunted, that's the _first time I flashed back while awake, _he thought worriedly.

"So… what do you think it is?" Simba gestured to the grass covered mound once more. Kovu stared at it, remembering the other mound he had seen.

The one he had filled.

"It's a burial mound," he intoned with a sober voice.

"Sir, Hyenas, on the northern border!" A mole popped up from the ground and shouted.

**Wow, I should probably shift this thing's rating up to M shouldn't I? Also anyone who can guess who the three Askari are will get a prize. Don't say it in a review though, pm me if you can. (Don't you try Asante, you already get to beta it. Let someone else have some fun:) **

**Edit: I have recently posted a series of bios on my profile page on the groups and characters in War Hero. not much there now, but I will update it when I can.**


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